Particle therapy destroys cancer non-invasively using
protons or charged light ions such as carbon. It offers advantages over conventional radiotherapy using x-rays, since far lower
radiation dose is delivered to healthy normal tissues. PT is also an alternative to
radical cancer surgery. Cancer and its treatment is still feared, and rightly so.
About a third of us will have a cancer during our lives, and we all know someone with
the disease. Despite enormous progress in recent years, so that being diagnosed with
cancer is not the death sentence that it once was, treatment can be aggressive,
leading to short and long term reductions in quality of life.

The PTCRi studies the clinical
effectiveness of charged particle therapy to treat cancer, promoting its use in the
UK and elsewhere on the basis of robust clinical evidence and analysis.

23rd October 2014: Oxford University has announced the creation of the Precision Cancer Medicine Institute, which will conduct clinical trials in proton beam therapy alongside other personalized, state-of-the-art treatments. Read the full press release here.